Federal Judge Rules Trump DHS Plan For 50% FEMA Staffing Cuts Was Unlawful

Filed 1h ago · Via HuffPost · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Meatball Parade

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Thomas Cecil · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that a Trump administration DHS plan to cut FEMA staffing by 50% was unlawful, siding with labor groups who argued it violated post-Katrina protections meant to keep staffing decisions with FEMA, not DHS. Illston wrote the number appeared 'as if pulled from thin air,' noting FEMA's own supervisors had objected.

The 50% cut was never fully carried out, and some previously terminated staff have since been rehired. But more than 4,300 employees, about 17% of the workforce, still separated from FEMA in the 2025 budget year, and a GAO report found the departures caused a 'loss of institutional knowledge' that hurt the agency's disaster response capacity.

A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council later backed away from the 50% figure in its final report, recommending a vague 'strategic review' instead. Illston did not order a specific remedy, directing both sides to negotiate a course of relief.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A judge had to point out, in writing, that the number driving cuts to the nation's disaster response agency seems to have been invented out of nothing. FEMA's own people said don't do this, and somebody at DHS did it anyway, then quietly walked it back once the lawsuit landed. That's a strange way to run the agency people call when their roof just blew off.

Source: Read the original at HuffPost → Scored: Meatball Parade · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID

OR FOLLOW THE DESK ON BLUESKY →